


Let's Go to the Mall, Everybody!

by stylindad



Category: Little Mix (Band), One Direction (Band), Zayn Malik (Musician)
Genre: Harry works at Lush, M/M, Mall AU, louis works at Adidas, retail worker au, they fall in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 13:51:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12558784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stylindad/pseuds/stylindad
Summary: Reason #21 - To prove we're not in a rut“But do you think we are?” Harry asks again, scooting over a spot on the table when Louis taps his thigh to signal he needs more room for the stacks of jumpers.“Think we are, what? Boyfriends for five months? I mean, I think it’s closer to four and three weeks, but-”“Do you think we’re in a rut?” Harry asks, words rushed as he stares at Louis with wide eyes.“Oh,” Louis replies, trying to stay as calm as possible.





	Let's Go to the Mall, Everybody!

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is part of the larry fic exchange for 50 reasons to have sex! it's my first semi-smutty fic lol and really just suuuuper self indulgent because i work 2 retail jobs right now. 
> 
> the title... i just had to. the fic exchange is based on a HIMYM episode, it's mainly set in a mall....

“Babe? Do you think we’re in a rut? Like, sexually?”

“Can you lower your voice when there are customers around?” Louis replies, giving a kind smile and wave to an older woman who was scowling at them from the sale section.

Harry shrugs, swinging his feet where he’s perched on the table Louis is in the middle of setting up. “You’re twenty five and you’ve got a boyfriend of five months. Not exactly a secret that you’re sexual active.”

The woman glares at them again before walking off to the fitting rooms with a handful of swimsuits, none of which she’ll probably end up buying.

Louis tries not to laugh because he doesn’t want to give Harry that satisfaction, but he also does agree. As much as he tries to follow the rules, sometimes there’s no way to avoid cursing at a ten year old kid who won’t stop playing with the footballs in the store. Yes, it is an Adidas in a kind of shit mall on the outskirts of London, but people should still have common courtesy. He’s been told so many times by Steve, the head store manager, that as a visual manager he’s responsible to both put out new products and set a good example for the rest of the employees. Sometimes it’s just too hard.

“But do you think we are?” Harry asks again, scooting over a spot on the table when Louis taps his thigh to signal he needs more room for the stacks of jumpers.

“Think we are, what? Boyfriends for five months? I mean, I think it’s closer to four and three weeks, but-”

“Do you think we’re in a rut?” Harry asks, words rushed as he stares at Louis with wide eyes. 

“Oh,” Louis replies, trying to stay as calm as possible. “What do you mean, exactly?”

He never thought that they were having issues. Sure, sometimes they’d both be busy with their work schedules, or he’d have homework from his online Uni classes to complete. They didn’t have sex as often as they used to, but he’d assumed that was just part of being a couple for so long. But the idea of having more sex does intrigue him.

“I dunno,” Harry replies, hands wrapping fiddling with one of the many pins on his LUSH apron. “Just like, don’t fuck as much as before. And sometimes when we do we end up just jerking ourselves off.”

“Yeah, I guess. If you want to try something new we can, babe. Didn’t know you weren’t enjoying it.”

Louis tries to act like he isn’t a little hurt as he sets up the ‘Just in! Fall Collection 17!’ sign on the table.

He looks up then and Harry’s shaking his head adamantly, reaching over to take Louis’ hand in his own. “I do enjoy it. Enjoy everything we do together. Just… maybe we could try things to get back on track, change things up. Want to make you happy.”

Louis smiles a bit, leaning over to kiss Harry’s cheek. “I am happy. But yeah, some new sex stuff could be nice.”

Harry beams up at him, and Louis wonders if the glow on his cheeks is from happiness or too much glitter from all the bath products the boy is always touching and getting everywhere.

“I can come over tonight after we both get off. Then we can… both get off.”

Louis has to force himself not to walk away then, but he laughs along with Harry because it’s just so contagious. “You’re ridiculous,” he murmurs into a kiss.

“Louis! Please stop snogging and keep doing the tables. We were supposed to have our fall collection launch done before we opened today!” Leigh-Anne, another visual manager of the store calls from the cash registers.

Louis sighs, pulling away from Harry and briefly giving Leigh-Anne the middle finger. “Come on, I’m sure your break is almost up.”

Harry nods, hopping off the table and pulling Louis in for a goodbye hug. “Wish my store wasn’t all the way on the other side so I could see you more,” he mumbles, face pressed in the hood of Louis’ Adidas sweatshirt.

“I’ll see you soon, though,” Louis murmurs. “I’m off at three, two hours after you. Think you could hang around for an hour so I can drive us both to my flat?” Harry nods into his shoulder, and Louis gives him a final peck on the head.

“Might just come in to annoy you after I catch up with Niall. Finally got the last bit of cash I needed to actually buy the guitar I’ve been wanting, maybe he can show me the best ones in the shop.”

Louis gives him a fond smile and nods. “Proud of you, babe. To celebrate I’ll have something waiting for you at Starbucks.” He pulls out his phone and quickly goes to the app, ordering Harry’s favorite cake pop so the boy could pick it up on his way back to work.

“Thanks,” Harry replies, picking up his backpack and waving goodbye to Leigh-Anne. “See you later.”

“Tell Liam hi,” Louis says before returning to folding his table.

“Tommo! No phones on the floor!” Steve calls, though it’s very half hearted. 

“Sorry,” Louis calls back.

But ten minutes later he’s checking his phone again, seeing a SnapChat from Harry. A photo of the cake pop half eaten is captioned ‘Thank you!!!’ with as many heart emojis as would fill the screen. The name on the order is ‘my extremely talented boyfriend who i love’, and Louis laughs for the rest of his shift imagining Liam saying it out loud with a red face.

\-----

Once they get back to Louis’ flat they’re both utterly exhausted from their days. They spend the majority of the twenty minute car ride complaining about the customers. Louis was somehow able to finish setting up the tables, only to have them rummaged through not ten minutes later. Harry had to deal with someone literally eating one of the facemasks while in the store.

“A literal adult ate the face mask!” Harry exclaims, sliding his shoes off in the entryway and making his way into the bedroom.

Louis laughs a bit, going to the fridge to grab a few beers and waters for them. The best part about being relocated from Doncaster to London to help open a new Adidas store was that even a year later they were still paying for half of Louis’ rent.

“Better than the time a kid pissed in the bath bomb water, right?” he tries to reason. When he enters the room Harry is already starfished on the bed, face down in the pillows. “Come on, cheer up. At least you don’t have homework to finish tonight.”

“Yeah, because I’m a fucking Uni dropout, don’t remind me.” The words are barely audible because of the muffling from the pillow.

Louis hums, taking a sip of his beer and setting the other down on the floor. He had never intended to actually live in London after the store opened, but in the end it was easier to just stay. He hadn’t bothered to buy a bedframe since, so his mattress was just on the floor.

“Nothing wrong with dropping out of school, love. Besides, you’re just taking the year off until you’ve saved up enough to go back. Think that’s more acceptable than taking online classes after two years away from school.”

Harry pouts, turning his head to the side so that he can gaze up to Louis. “You know that’s not what I meant. Nothing wrong with what you’re doing,” he murmurs. “Just… not what I imagined.”

“I know, babe,” Louis replies. And he does, but sometimes when Harry complains about feeling like a failure it does sting a bit.

He waits a moment and then sets down his beer, sliding down on the bed so that he can wrap Harry up in a proper hug and kiss the side of his head. “Love you, no matter what you do,” he assures.

Harry nods, and after a long moment they’re pressed together and kissing intently, all thoughts of Uni and work gone.

\-----

“Hey, um… maybe we should try focusing on you?”

They’re twenty minutes into their cuddle-turned-snog-turned-frottage-turned-handjob when Louis pulls away. It’s been five minutes and he still isn’t close, so he figures it’s better to just switch the attention to Harry.

“Oh. Okay,” Harry says, pulling back his hand and laying on his back.

“We can try me again after I’ve made you come,” Louis explains with a reassuring kiss to Harry’s forehead. “Just let me switch sides, my left hand had more practice at this.”

Louis climbs over Harry, grimacing because there is definitely nothing sexy about their current situation. But then again, a lot of sex is unglamorous and filled with laughs, it was one of the things he liked about them.

“Fuck! I was using my wrong hand,” Harry realizes, his eyes going wide. “Babe, I was using my left hand, that one’s shit at getting you off.”

Louis laughs happily then, pulling in Harry for a long kiss to try and calm him down. “It’s alright, babe. That’s kind of fucking hilarious.” 

And then Harry’s laughing with him, and they take another few minutes to actually get back to normal.  
They end up kissing through their giggles and just getting themselves off, though at the very end Harry ducks down to take Louis’ cock in his mouth for a bit.

It’s still nice, even if it isn’t rose petals and sweat and everything someone would get off to in a porn. It’s them, and that’s exactly what Louis loves. They can laugh and joke and smile and still have a nice time.

“So, are you going to stay over?” Louis asks once they’ve cleaned up and they’re back in the bed cuddling.

“Didn’t you say you had homework to do?” Harry replies, his hand drawing small shapes all over Louis’ bare chest.

“Yeah, but having you stay over sounds like a lot more fun, don’t you think?”

Harry sighs and sits up, glancing at the clock to notice that it’s rather late. “The last bus leaves in fifteen minutes,” he explains. “And I have to be at work at seven am because Nick asked me to come in early to help with shipment.”

Louis nods, reaching over to grab his phone and see if he’s missed any important texts. He hasn’t, they’re all just Zayn asking him if he wants to smoke. His emails are almost all annoying spam from Adidas, which he’d signed up for thinking it’d be helpful to know what was going it. It really isn’t.

“Yeah, okay,” he murmurs, getting up to help Harry find his shirt and pants, which had been thrown to the side earlier.

“What’s your shift tomorrow?” Harry asks, pulling on his shirt and kicking Louis’ boxers over to him.

“Think I’m closing? So I won’t really see you unless you stick around.”

“I’m off at three, want to meet up for a snack at the pretzel stand?”

“Yeah, sure. Think you can con James into a free one again?”

“Of course, he’ll do anything for me when he sees my dimples.”

Louis chuckles and walks over to Harry, pulling him in close. “So would I. Don’t let James steal you away from me, okay?”

“You don’t give me pretzels, though,” Harry reasons, though his smile makes it obvious he’s joking.

“Maybe I don’t, but I do give you thirty percent off on Adidas clothes.”

Harry snorts, pulling away to head to the door so he doesn’t miss the bus. “I barely wear Adidas. And I give your fifty off at LUSH, which you use for your sisters. I have more bargaining power in this.”

Louis shrugs, following Harry and giving him a short kiss goodnight. “I’d still be with you even if it was only twenty percent, babe.”

“A true modern love,” Harry jokes, giving a wave goodbye. “See you tomorrow, Lou.”


End file.
